Serous retinal detachment following glaucoma surgery.

The authors report the occurrence and clinical course of serous retinal detachment following glaucoma surgery in three patients. Serous detachment resolved in all patients spontaneously following treatment with oral and topical steroids.     

Effects of serotonergic and anticholinergic drugs in haloperidol-induced dystonia in Cebus monkeys

In rodents, serotonin (5-HT) antagonists counteract behavioral and biochemical effects of neuroleptic drugs. Therefore, we have studied the effect of different 5-HT drugs and one anticholinergic drug in acute dystonia in five cebus monkeys chronically treated with haloperidol. Acute dystonia induced by subcutaneous injections of haloperidol was slightly reduced by the 5-HT antagonist methysergide (4.0 mg/kg), while mianserin, ketanserin, and ritanserin (R 55 667; a new selective and potent 5-HT receptor blocker) had no effect. This was contrasted by the marked antidystonic effect of the anticholinergic drug biperiden (0.05-1.0 mg/kg). The 5-HT agonist citalopram, a specific 5-HT uptake inhibitor, had no significant effect. It is concluded that 5-HT antagonists have no useful effect in neuroleptic-induced dystonia.     

Squamous cell metaplasia of the bladder urothelium. A retrospective study of 36 patients.

In a retrospective study of 28 women and eight men with squamous cell metaplasia in different parts of the bladder, including the trigone, no histopathological differences were observed among the regions. All the five (female) patients with parakeratosis had a concomitant invasive bladder tumour. Thirty-eight% of all the patients had a simultaneous neoplastic tumour. The metaplastic lesions were investigated for keratin in 13 patients, and all were positive. In seven out of eight patients, the urothelium adjacent to the squamous cell metaplasia was also positive for keratin, indicating a direct transformation of the urothelium to squamous cell epithelium. The metaplastic cells were investigated for oestrogen receptors in five men and five women, and all were negative, suggesting no relationship between estrogens and squamous cell metaplasia of the bladder. Squamous cell metaplasia in the bladder is not considered a premalignant condition. However, metaplasia and neoplastic tumours are often associated with chronic tissue damage, and the presence of metaplasia may give a warning of conditions that can also cause cancer.     

Nimodipine treatment of subarachnoid hemorrhage

In a pilot study of 6 patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage caused by a ruptured intracranial (grade IV (Hunt and Hess) aneurysm the hemodynamics and plasma-nimodipine concentrations have been observed during a 3-week period of treatment. We found that 3 patients developed reversible hypotension during the nimodipine treatment and that the hypotension tendency could be related to the plasmanimodipine level and not to a more or less severe sensitivity to nimodipine.

Repeated measurements of blood pressure, plasma-nimodipine and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) are necessary for the purpose of obtaining the optimum treatment and for evaluating the effect of treatment.